


The Gang Goes To Pride

by trillfairy



Category: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre: A super huge mess, Canon-Typical Behavior, Fluff, M/M, Mac is super gay and super out, The Gang Goes To Pride, ace!charlie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-04
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-10-14 19:48:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10543347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trillfairy/pseuds/trillfairy
Summary: Dennis expected, the moment he realized that Mac was a one hundred percent, out of the closet, homosexual identifying person, that he would eventually drag the gang along to one of his gay events or whatever. A couple occasional nights at The Rainbow would have been perfectly fine for Dennis, but when Mac stumbled into Paddy’s one Saturday night covered in glitter from his fun night and announced his upcoming “huge event”, Dennis was completely caught off guard. The gang was going to Philadelphia Pride.





	1. Part One: Dennis

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to thank my lovely friend, Selena, for cheering me on throughout this writing process. It's a short and sweet fic with not a lot of backstory but I love pride and I love the gang and seeing the cast at LA pride last summer fueled my motivation for this fic.   
> Disclaimer: there are probably a lot of errors in this fic that I will catch later, typo wise.   
> Thank y'all. <3
> 
> P.S. This is written as if Dennis' Double Life never happened cause I'm still hurting from that one.

It was hot. Incredibly, painstakingly hot and Mac’s idea was getting worse and worse every second the gang maneuvered through the crowd of bright colors and sweaty bodies.

“Can we hurry up and find a place to stand, the parade is gonna be the same any place we end up,” Dennis groaned as Mac scanned the crowd before them, trying to decide where to get the best spot to awe at the passing by floats. “And it’s hot as shit.”

“I know! I can hardly breathe.” Dee chimed in, fanning herself with one of the flyers to some after-party she was given by some stud girl.

“It’s not _that_ bad.” Mac rolled his eyes before spotting what was the 12th ‘perfect spot’ of the evening and bounding toward it to claim the gang’s place.

Dennis rolled his eyes before being dragged, stumbling behind Dee and Charlie. It was easy for Mac to say, he was wearing that stupid black mesh tank top that exposed his skin underneath and shorts that hugged his ass. (Dennis glanced a couple times, so what?)

Soon enough they ended up in a spot that didn’t seem at all different than the previous, but Mac was happy with the view, something about being able to see the “bear float” or whatever.

“Hey, what are all these colors?” Charlie questioned, rather loudly, breaking through Dennis’ thoughts.

“Ooh! My friends taught me these.” Mac perked up, being able to show off his fancy gay knowledge. Dennis rolled his eyes as Mac begin going off on his tangent about flags and pride. “And um.. I think the grey, black, white and purple one is for asexuality?”

“Asexuality…?” Charlie tasted the word. “What is that?”

“I think it’s when you don’t really want to have sex. Like you don’t really like the idea of sex or having it. Which I don’t understand but I mean hey, it’s their thing.” Mac shrugged before looking back to the parade, eager for it to start.

“Well, _ I _ don’t like sex.” Charlie thought aloud to himself, or Mac, who had already stopped listening. “Plus the colors are pretty badass, not all colorful and bright.”

Dennis and Dee exchanged looks, a look that nearly yelled “oh god.” Because when Charlie, or anyone in the gang for that matter, got ahold of something, it was going to become a whole thing. That’s why they were here in the god-damn first place. And Charlie had already gone overboard with excitement for this event-- Dee was evidence of this, here standing with colored glitter all over her shoulders and paint under her eyes thanks to Charlie’s “burst of artistic creativity” or whatever he wanted to call it.

“Well maybe you’re ace, dude.” Mac suggested, hardly paying attention as the parade began with cop cars whooping ahead and military men with multiple flags of pride following behind. 

Dennis rolled his eyes. “Charlie, you can be whatever you want to be and quite frankly, I can’t stand labels. I’m sorry, why are they even a thing?” Dennis was a fucking god. He didn’t need labels. He liked what he liked and that was that.

Charlie shrugged before turning back to the parade and Dennis’ statement was enough to catch Mac’s attention for a split second before he jerked his head back to the parade, now cheering on a group of men in leather dancing to some David Bowie song.

“I’m going to go get a beer.” Dee half groaned, turning to leave, and Dennis decided he’d probably need one too, and followed close behind her.

\------------

Charlie finding out he was “asexual” inevitably became a thing. During the parade, a float decked in the flag’s colors passed by and Charlie nearly lost his shit. So much that, after, the gang found themselves trying to stop Charlie from blowing what money he did have to his name on a bunch of ace-pride stuff.

Once Charlie got his  _ one _ thing they allowed-- his one thing being a fucking ace-pride flag the size of his entire body--  they walked through the crowd to find the stage and more beer.

This place was god-damn big and Mac was annoying eyeing nearly every “hot, muscular” dude in sight and they were  _ eyeing him back _ . The men weren’t even that good looking if Dennis had any say in it. Mac’s taste in men was awful.

“Mac!” A voice called, over the loud pulsing noise of Lady Gaga, to Mac in particular, steering the gang in another direction to meet a group of people Dennis assumed were Mac’s gay friends from The Rainbow. One of them was someone he was sure Mac would be pining over; big, muscular and attractive. The other two were what Dennis assumed to be a lesbian couple, one with long hair and a backwards hat and the other particularly femme.

“I’m so glad you came!” The feminine girl smiled, leaning in to hug him, her glitter brushing off against his tank top. “And you brought your friends! We’ve heard so much about you guys.” She switched the beer in her hands to extend one to Dennis first who took it in surprise. “I’m Selena, this is my girlfriend Joey and our friend Rex.”

“Rex?” Dennis caught the name slipping out of his mouth as he eyed the man up and down, being too quiet to be heard.

“Finally getting to meet the gang.” Rex grinned. “Mac never shuts up about you all.” 

Dennis’ stomach dropped and Dee and Charlie try and pull some “cool” facade, very obviously flattered by the compliments and interest. 

Soon Charlie is spewing off some story about Mac and his previous closeted gay-ness and Dee is hitting it off with the two girls and Dennis is awkwardly standing by as Mac stands a little too close to Rex.

His hand begins to tremble and the beer spills slightly over the edge so his only solution is to down it and get another, leaving the gang quickly and not-so smoothly.

Three more beers later he was right where he preferred to be. His head warm and the loud shitty pop music pulsing comfortably through his body. Dee was dancing with Charlie and the girl, Joey, who had earlier helped Charlie paint the ace flags under his eyes and Mac was dancing with Rex.

His hand curled around the back of his neck and one wrapped around his waist as their hips swayed to the beat of “I’m Coming Out” by Diana Ross.

Yeah, Mac was out. Did he have to be so _obnoxious_ about it? Dancing with guys right in front of Dennis? Moving his hips close to them and just being incredibly gay? ~~Without him~~?

“You know, you  _ could _ ask him to dance, right?” Selena appeared next to Dennis, nearly scaring the shit out of him. He was drunk, his senses were off.

“And why would I do that?” Dennis slurred, disgust hinting his tone.

“Why wouldn’t you?” Selena laughed. “I know for a fact he wants you to.”

“For a fact?”

“I mean, he does talk about you a lot.” Selena shrugged. “Your choice, man.”

Dennis looked down at the nearly half empty beer in his hand and stirred it around a bit before chugging down the rest and handing off the cup to Selena. “Fine.” his teeth ground, trying desperately to keep his hands from balling into fists.

When he reached Mac, he could hear his heart beating through his ears. Rex had stopped his grinding movements and turned to Dennis with a smile that he completely ignored. “Mac?”

“Yeah, bro?” Mac broke away from Rex with a smile, his breath a bit short, beads of sweat forming on his forehead. 

“Dance with me.” Dennis insisted. 

Mac looked stunned but turned to Rex and nodded before turning to Dennis and swaying his hips, the beginning notes to Prince’s Kiss starting up, the crowd cheering, raising their plastic cups in the air.  “What’s up?”

“No.” Dennis shook his head before reaching for Mac’s hands. Now was as good of a time as any, the alcohol in his system igniting a false sense of confidence. He moved his hands to his waist, closing the gap between them and leaned in close to Mac, noses nearly touching. This was a good step. Getting closer to Mac. “This okay?”

“Oh- um, yeah.” Mac cracked a smile and continued swaying his hips, eventually falling into the comfort of holding Dennis, thumbs pressing against his hip bones, one hand hesitantly reaching behind his neck.

_ ‘Let me be your fantasy,  _

_ and maybe you can be mine.  _

_ You just leave it all up to me,  _

**_we could have a good time.’_ **


	2. Part Two: Mac

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> part two is written in sort of a different style than the first part? so i'm sorry about that. but mac has a lot of thoughts about being gay and dennis so that's why i kind of wrote it this way. enjoy! ;)

Mac was out, Mac was happy. 

Things could always be a bit better, but Mac didn’t mind the other things too much, because he was finally himself. He didn’t mind that, yeah, he was dirt poor and still stuck at the dump the gang all loved called Paddy’s Pub and he didn’t care that his body wasn’t quite where he’d like it to be. Mac tried not to mind that his best friend would probably never acknowledge his admiration for him, but he had time to work on that. He had friends, met new men, and that was progress, right?

Plus, Dennis probably had no interest in men anyway despite the mixed signals he gave off from time to time that frustrated Mac beyond belief-- Like when Dennis said he hated labels back at the parade? What the  _ hell _ was that?-- It was god-damn annoying, but that was Dennis, a frustrating and annoying asshole that just happened to be Mac’s best friend.

Mac tried not to mind. Mac tried to be happy despite that part.

The sun had fallen past the horizon, casting vibrant colors of purple, red and yellow across the sky while the Drag Queens finished their performances, queueing a musical break of various songs of pride before the next band. The people around them had drinks in their hands and fell into the comfortable routine of dancing and drinking with their friends or partners. And since Mac doubted Dennis would want anything to do with the gay dancing, Mac grabbed Rex, downed his flask filled with tequila and held on for dear life to find some hint of happiness Dennis gave him.

And it was working, until Mac spotted, from the corner of his eye, Dennis drunkenly shoving his cup toward Selena and making his way toward him and Rex. He tried to act oblivious when Dennis called his name and when Dennis asked him to dance it took him everything in his power not to push Rex away and grab onto  _ Dennis  _ for dear life.

He tried to act casual, starting without his hands touching Dennis like his hands touched Rex, but Dennis insisted, taking Mac’s hands and moving them to grip his hips and pulled him closer, falling into to the rhythm. 

In the sea of bodies around them, it felt as if they were the only people on the block.

_ ‘I just want your extra time and your kiss.’ _

Dennis’ hands began tracing a path down from Mac’s shoulders and found one gripping into the front of Mac’s mesh tank, the other finding it’s way into his messy hair, pulling their faces closer, noses nearly touching. Dennis running his tongue around his own lips and Mac could only stare in disbelief, hoping his drunken mind wasn’t playing games with him. “Den?”

“Shut up.” Dennis growled. “You like me, right?”

Of  _ course _ he liked him. “Um-”

“Right?” Dennis demanded. He was doing the thing he did when emotions began to get involved, slapping on the tough, apathetic facade that the gang knew all too well. Mac wasn’t an idiot, even if he was drunk, he knew that this was phony. It was the same thing Dennis had done when he got him the RPG on Valentine’s Day. 

Mac couldn’t get angry, so he simply pressed his thumb deeper into the nook of Dennis’ hipbone and yanked his hips closer, continuing his grinding movements, causing Dennis to squeak and Mac chuckled.

“Mac.” Dennis still demanded a proper answer, clenching his teeth and looking into Mac’s eyes with fake anger.

What the hell was he supposed to say?  _ ‘Yeah, you know, all these years of being your friend I’ve been falling for you harder and harder every day.’  _ Why was Dennis demanding answers to questions he already knew? Questions he’d probably make fun of the answers to.

Now was as good a time as any. After years of pining and dealing with intense self-hatred trying to suppress his sexuality, all he could muster up was a meek “yes.”

Dennis grip on him slacked and his eyes went soft. “Oh.” Before Mac could interject any further, Dennis’ grip tightened again and his intimidating mask returned. “Well,” he hummed with a smirk. “What are you gonna do about it?”

Mac wanted to pull him closer, if that was even possible at this point, and never let go. Mac wanted to pin him against the wall of their apartment building and kiss him until he couldn’t breathe. Mac wanted to punch him for being such an asshole for several years of knowing each other and taunting his sexuality just by looking and being so him. So Mac did the reasonable thing in that moment, in the middle of a sea of bodies who could care less about what the person beside them was doing, and pressed his lips against Dennis’ smug smirk.

Nothing around him mattered. The music and the crowd were only a distant hum in the back of his mind as he felt Dennis sink further into their kiss. It was nowhere near hot, they were drunk, it was messy, it was humid, it was public, but it was perfect to Mac. 

When he pulled away Dennis looked down, taking a breath, as if trying to take in the intensity of what happened, before breathing an intoxicated chuckle. And Mac laughed too, hand still curled in Dennis’ hair, the other gripping his hips. This was fucking ridiculous, but this was them.

As the next band took the stage, they decided to rejoin Charlie and Dee and when the first chords to Queen’s Under Pressure played, the crowd cheered and the gang danced shamelessly together. Mac was out, Mac was happy. And this time, there were no exceptions. 

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to dm me about your feelings bc i'm always down to talk about the gays in iasip.  
> twitter: @macdcnnis  
> tumblr: kylaurens.tumblr.com


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